[world-vedic] Dr. Frawley’s (Vamadeva's) 2002 Trip to India

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>

>Dr. Frawley's (Vamadeva's) 2002 Trip to India

>

>As in previous years, from Jan. 15 to Feb. 22 2002, Dr. Frawley

>conducted an extensive tour of India. He covered the southern and

>northeastern parts of the country, as well as Delhi, doing over

>twenty programs in a dozen or more locations and meeting with a wide

>variety of people on a diversity of topics regarding Vedic knowledge

>and India today.

>

>Vamadeva remains one of the few westerners actively working, speaking

>and traveling in India to promote the cause of Vedic knowledge in its

>native land where it remains under siege by a variety of forces,

>largely originating from the western world. He hopes to help counter

>the negative influence of western culture in India by representing

>those in the West who value Vedic knowledge.

>

>In Delhi, Dr. Frawley released the Indian edition of his recent book

>Vedantic Meditation (Full Circle Books) at the Habitat Center. He

>also spoke at IIT (Indian Institute of Technology) and later at the

>Sri Aurobindo Society. He did interviews for Hindustan Times and the

>Business Standard and a program for Door Darshan (Indian television).

>In Delhi he stayed with B.M. Thapar of the Thapar group of industries

>where he conducted several private meetings and discussions.

>

>In Bangalore he conducted a seminar on ancient India along with N.S.

>Rajaram and noted archaeologist S.R. Rao for the Naimisha Research

>Foundation. The seminar emphasized the Vedic nature of civilization

>in India going back to prehistoric times. With NS Rajaram, he also

>arranged a press conference on Rewriting History that was written up

>on in Bangalore newspapers, stating the importance of updating

>history books in India in light of new finds that show a greater

>antiquity and Vedic basis for civilization in the region. He also

>visited an RSS camp and saw 50,000 of its members gathered for a

>massive program, showing the strength of Hindu organizations in India

>today. In Bangalore, he stayed with S.K. Maini, who has pioneered the

>electric car in India.

>

>In Hyderabad (Andhra Pradesh), Vamadeva gave the closing address for

>a large conference on Traditional Indian Contributions to Science

>arranged through Prajna Bharati. He spoke at a similar program at a

>university in nearby Warangal. It was interesting to see how many

>people of a science background in India are still holding Vedantic

>views, following Vedic practices and seeking to integrate them with

>modern science. He also spoke at the Ramana Kendra in Hyderabad on

>Ramana Maharshi's teachings. He spoke in Vishakpatnam along the coast

>in Andhra Pradesh also through Prajna Bharati. There he stayed with

>noted spiritual teacher, Sivananda Murthy, with whom he had various

>discussions on yoga, mantra and self-realization.

>

>In Chennai (Madras), he gave the keynote address at Anna University

>at a program along with Abdul Kalam, the director of India's nuclear

>program. He also spoke at Ramana Kendra, the center for Ramana

>Maharshi in Chennai. He met with T.R. Ramachandran of Tattva Loka

>magazine and Sringeri Shankaracharya Math about their plan for an

>extensive Vedic research center in Chennai.

>

>He stayed at the Ramanashram (Ramana Maharshi center) in

>Tiruvannamalai for eight days of retreat, where he visited regularly

>with K. Natesan, one of Ramana's and Ganapati Muni's oldest living

>disciples, and with Swami Devananda. He also spoke at Swami

>Suddhanananda's Center for Self-knowledge in Tiruvannamalai.

>

>In Calcutta, he spoke at the Bharitiya Sanskrit Sansad, a noted

>cultural center. He also visited the Kali temple in Calcutta, which

>remains a great center for spiritual transformation.

>

>In Gauhati, Assam and the northeast of India, his program was

>arranged by the Vivekananda Kendra Institute for Culture (VKIC). He

>spoke at their center in Gauhati and also did a press conference and

>question and answer sessions there. Later he met with tribal leaders

>from the northeast region at the center. He spoke at Gauhati

>University in two separate programs, one before the Ayurvedic

>department, the other before the philosophy department which lauded

>his contributions to India on a philosophical level of Vedic thought.

>He visited the famous Kamakhya Temple to the Goddess, which was a

>source of great inspiration for him.

>

>He took a car from Gauhati to Shillong in Meghalaya where he did

>several programs, visiting the Sri Aurobindo Center in Shillong along

>with the cottage where the great yogi Sri Anirvan stayed in his later

>years. Notably, he took a special trip to the remote hills above

>Shillong and spoke before two tribal gatherings along with the help

>of translators, visiting the Khasi hills and the Jayanti hills. These

>programs were filmed by the Vivekananda Kendra.

>

>There he saw first hand how Christian missionaries, seeking to

>convert the natives by discrediting their indigeneous culture, were

>undermining the tribal cultures that had flourished there for

>thousands of years without outside interference. For many of these

>people, he was the first westerner they met who was not a Christian

>or a missionary and was not seeking to convert them. Naturally the

>villagers were very happy to find a well-wisher from the West who

>taught them that they could adapt to the modern world without having

>to give up either their culture or their native beliefs.

>

>From Gauhati, he took a helicopter ride up the vast Brahmaputra River

>to Itinagar in Arunachal Pradesh and spoke for the Vivekananda Kendra

>there. He stayed with one of the local ministers and attended several

>cultural functions, including visiting the Ramakrishna Mission there.

>He noted how much the tribal people of Arunachal Pradesh resembled

>the Native Americans both in appearance and cultural traits.

>

>During his visit to India, he met with various spiritual and social

>leaders and journalists including Murli Manohar Joshi, Swami

>Dayananda, Sivananda Murthy, K.S. Sudarshan, H.V. Seshadri, Arun

>Shourie, S. Gurumurthy, Sitaram Goel, J.C. Kapur, Lokesh Chandra,

>D.P. Sinha, Jana Krishnamurthi, Sandhya and Meenakshi Jain, and

>Devendra Swarup, among others. News of his programs occurred in

>newspapers in Delhi, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Calcutta, Gauhati, and

>Shillong.

>

>Many of his talks were based on subjects in his recent book, Hinduism

>and the Clash of Civilizations, and his work to help restore Vedic

>systems of knowledge in the modern world. While he noted a continued

>spiritual and cultural awakening in India, he could also see the

>problems caused by the invasion of western commercial culture and the

>continuing missionary assault on India from both Protestant and

>Catholic groups who target the poor and uneducated in the country

>with anti-Hindu propaganda. He felt it was time for the West to seek

>to learn from India's great spiritual heritage, rather than trying to

>eliminate it.

>

>He often spoke on how India could develop in the modern world without

>giving up its own spiritual and Vedic heritage. In fact his main

>point was that only by reviving its ancient Rishi culture could India

>really regain its true stature in the world. Additional topics that

>he covered included the validity of astrology as a science and the

>importance of teaching it in the schools, the importance of Ayurveda

>for health and the need to expand its study, and the need to rewrite

>history in light of new archaeological finds that show a much greater

>antiquity for civilization in India and a Vedic basis for it.

>

>He also gave several talks on Vedantic philosophy and its relevance

>for the path of Self-knowledge. He sees Vedanta or the sense of the

>Self as God as the main means of awakening in India, using the great

>spiritual heritage of the country to revive it in the planetary age.

>

>It was his first visit to the northeast of India, which he found to

>be the most beautiful and best preserved portions of the country, as

>well as carrying a great spiritual power.

>

>In this time of great crisis in the world, which will probably worsen

>in the months to come, he emphasizes India's important role in

>leading humanity to a true planetary age and age of consciousness.

>

>Program

>Delhi - Jan. 15-24

>Bangalore - Jan. 24-28

>Hyderabad, Warangal, Vishakpatnam (Andhra Pradesh) - Jan. 28-Feb. 4

>Ramanashram (Tiruvannamalai) and Chennai (Madras) - Feb. 5-13

>Kolkatta (Calcutta) - Feb. 13-15

>Gauhati (Assam), Shillong (Meghalaya), Itinagar (Arunachal Pradesh) -

>Feb. 15-19

>Delhi - Feb. 19-22

>

>

>

 

 

 

 

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